"The War Prayer" discussion [spoilers]

[ruuger]

This is the discussion post for the episode 1X07, "The War Prayer". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Extra reading:

The article for "The War Prayer" at Lurker's Guide.

Comments

Re: II. Everyone Else

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

I find myself wondering whether a stronger emotional punch wouldn't have been if our villain of the hour had been an old war comrade of Sinclair's OR Ivanova's, with his willingness to go after aliens directly tied to his experience in a genocidal war.

Oh, that would have been wonderful! I was thinking something similar during Sinclair's bit about how "We had a saying; the only good alien is a dead one" - compare it with his line next episode about how after the Battle of the Line, for years afterward he had to fight the urge to strangle every Minbari he saw, and you kind of wonder how much Sinclair was just saying what he thought Home Guard wanted to hear, and how much of it was real feelings he used to have...

Re: II. Everyone Else

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Sinclair's arc of eventually ending up as Valen (and giving up his human existence for this) is all the more powerful if you consider he must have gone through a phase where he hated every Minbari he saw. Now obviously by the time we meet him in B5, he's not just past that but actively interested in working for reconciliation, but yes, he probably dug up some emotions he at some point felt though knew to be wrong in order to fool Malcolm.